Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[fisherlady]

My Buff Orpington died this morning at the age of around 22 months. She went broody in late March, and I acquired some fertile eggs for her to sit on. Many pecks later, she hatched 3 of 5 eggs. She mothered them until I thought they were large enough to fend for themselves. She laid exactly one egg after hatching the chicks. I moved her back in with her cousins, but she lost color in her comb and wattles and her tail was down, not up. I would guess she has been in this lethargic state for a couple of months. Last week, I moved her into one of the unused nest boxes. As of yesterday, she was still pecking and drinking, but not moving out. Today she is dead. If she were a human, she would be diagnosed with "failure to thrive." Otherwise, I have no clue.

Sorry to hear about your hen.... If you have the heart to do it you may want to have a necropsy done by someone, or even yourself if you can.... may not be anything specific you can diagnose from external exam but internal may show a different story. If she was normal until she went back to laying it may be that she was laying internally and got infected from it, or had some other type of reproductive tract abnormality.

No matter what the cause though... never easy to loose a bird like that, I'm sorry you lost her....

 

[TeaChick]

My Buff Orpington died this morning at the age of around 22 months. She went broody in late March, and I acquired some fertile eggs for her to sit on. Many pecks later, she hatched 3 of 5 eggs. She mothered them until I thought they were large enough to fend for themselves. She laid exactly one egg after hatching the chicks. I moved her back in with her cousins, but she lost color in her comb and wattles and her tail was down, not up. I would guess she has been in this lethargic state for a couple of months. Last week, I moved her into one of the unused nest boxes. As of yesterday, she was still pecking and drinking, but not moving out. Today she is dead. If she were a human, she would be diagnosed with "failure to thrive." Otherwise, I have no clue.

Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss!!!
I lost a hen (she was supposed to be one of my brood hens, but she didn't make it more than two weeks; me and the breeder I got her from think that she ate a bug or caught something that the chickens I've raised here were immune to before they started laying; she was just at laying age, so it was a critical time for her). =(
I'm so sorry!!! (((hugs)))

 

[Happy Flock]

My Buff Orpington died this morning at the age of around 22 months. She went broody in late March, and I acquired some fertile eggs for her to sit on. Many pecks later, she hatched 3 of 5 eggs. She mothered them until I thought they were large enough to fend for themselves. She laid exactly one egg after hatching the chicks. I moved her back in with her cousins, but she lost color in her comb and wattles and her tail was down, not up. I would guess she has been in this lethargic state for a couple of months. Last week, I moved her into one of the unused nest boxes. As of yesterday, she was still pecking and drinking, but not moving out. Today she is dead. If she were a human, she would be diagnosed with "failure to thrive." Otherwise, I have no clue.

So sorry for your loss, CarlsaSC. Such a sad story, especially since your hen had had babies and been such a good mum. I also have BO's and they are part of the family.

But wait, the Barnies are out and about now!

Mama knows best.. if they have food and water easily available then let them decide if they want anything. If you are worried about them for health reasons you can always fix a small dish of water and offer it to her on the nest, and also offer a few goodies such as meal worms or scrambled egg bits. The hens may accept your offering or may totally ignore you, but at least you will feel better knowing you tried to tempt them. Don't force the issue, and if your hens are really people shy then don't stress them with the hand offerings, just leave it nearby for them.

Thanks Fisherlady. No babies yet today and no movement from hens. They are still in their zen-like trance, no eating or drinking. Let's hope for some babies tomorrow!

 

[MEMama3]

This may just be a pipe dream, but I'm planning on a new coop and I'm sketching some design ideas. My thought (since I love communal nest boxes) is to do my usual and have a big one that extends along the wall and well off the floor. That leaves dead space underneath. I want to put an "extra" nest box under the communal box that could accommodate a broody if need be. That way I could sort of block her off so the girls leave her alone, but she'd still be with the flock. It would be open to whomever if no one is broody. What size should I make it to accommodate a broody until her chicks are hatched and getting mobile?

 

[fisherlady]

This may just be a pipe dream, but I'm planning on a new coop and I'm sketching some design ideas. My thought (since I love communal nest boxes) is to do my usual and have a big one that extends along the wall and well off the floor. That leaves dead space underneath. I want to put an "extra" nest box under the communal box that could accommodate a broody if need be. That way I could sort of block her off so the girls leave her alone, but she'd still be with the flock. It would be open to whomever if no one is broody. What size should I make it to accommodate a broody until her chicks are hatched and getting mobile?

If you make a standard large fowl size nest box 3x the normal width... so about 3ft long by 12 or 14 inches deep the area under it should be fine for a broody, especially if you do like I have on my nest boxes and place a roost bar on the front of the box. The under area would then be 14 or 16 inches deep by 3ft long (if you run chicken wire around the suspended box on three sides, using the roost bar to attach the front wire to. This would provide enough room to have the broody nest at one end with food and water dish near other end. It would work fine for 3 or 4 days to provide a safe hatching area and place for mama to teach them to recognize her voice signals and the other birds in the flock would be able to see them but not cause conflicts.

 

[TeaChick]

@ MEMama3
& @ FisherLady

Be ye forewarned, I plan on using your idea for a brood space under a communal nesting box!!!

THANKS!!!

 

[fisherlady]

@ MEMama3
& @ FisherLady

Be ye forewarned, I plan on using your idea for a brood space under a communal nesting box!!!

THANKS!!!

 

[bumpercarr]

Pictures of the "babies" that hatched in August. They are huge now, probably weigh about 4 pounds each. Here they are at 16 weeks:

 

[fisherlady]

Pictures of the "babies" that hatched in August. They are huge now, probably weigh about 4 pounds each. Here they are at 16 weeks:

Nice ! That top one will be a very striking bird when it matures. .

 

[Peep-Chicken]

Does anyone know if I could successfully breed bantams and LF? We have 1 LF Roo, 1 LF female and 2 female bantams. Could I breed the Roo and bantams together w/o injury?